INEXPERIENCE in the back four has proved costly for Highworth Town and manager Jeff Roberts, who admits tomorrow’s home tie against Cinderford Town will prove a tough encounter amid the club’s injury woes.

Roberts has just eight fully fit men available for tomorrow’s tie, meaning he has been forced to dip into Town’s reserve ranks in order to field a competitive starting XI and bench.

Despite Highworth’s respectable mid-table position in Southern League Division One South, Roberts admits one clean sheet since the start of September has done his side no favours as they seek to re-ignite their play-off charge with a win against Paul Michael’s men.

“When we looked at our defence at the start of the season, we felt like we were a very compact and solid unit,” said Roberts.

“Ins and outs since the start of the season has led to a bit of inexperience in our side, though.

“We need to bring some fresh legs in at the back to establish that stability that we need.

“Scoring goals right now isn’t an issue, but we are conceding very easily.

“We always say to defend from the front, but we’re too wide and open at the moment – teams are finding it easy to find a way through.

“So that’s something we’ll be having a look at.”

Five wins and a draw from their opening 10 fixtures place Cinderford two points ahead of Highworth in the table, meaning a win for Roberts’ men will promote them at least one place up the league.

While Highworth have the second best goalscoring record in the division, a leaky defence has proved counter productive for Town.

And Roberts is hoping their poor defensive record won’t stretch into mid-November, despite admitting his squad is somewhat depleted.

He added: “Cinderford will be similar to what Bideford were last weekend – they were physical, tough, direct and strong up front.

“We have been conceding a lot of goals, we seem to be getting footholds in games before caving in. We are looking at trying to bring a couple of defenders in to strengthen things up a little.

“We’ve got a lot of injuries too, six men are out and we have a couple of niggles too.

“We’re thin on the ground. We’ve probably got eight players that are fully fit – so we’ll have to make use of our reserve players and sit them on the bench until we get these niggles out of our way.

“I was speaking to someone earlier this week about the difference between the Hellenic and the Southern League.

“You don’t play many teams in this league that want to play football. We try and get it down, but we’ve had to change our game lately because of circumstances.

“It’s a physical league and we’re playing against teams that are direct.

“We couldn’t compete against the physical side and strength of the Bideford strikers last week.”